Sports And Twitter

Twitter: The Next Big Innovation In Sports?

Well, I don’t really know him, but because of Twitter, I’m closer to knowing him than I ever could have imagined 10 years ago. Think about it. Shaq lets me know what he’s up to on a regular basis, tweets me jokes and even replies to messages I send him every once in a while. Of course, when I say “me” I mean the millions of followers he has, but that’s beside the point. What I’m trying to say is: Shaq and I are tight.

Players livin' large on Twitter

It’s not just the big fella, either. Hundreds of players and coaches have wholeheartedly embraced Twitter. Steve Nash gives updates from his vacation in South America; Terrell Owens lets you know how his house hunting is going; and John Calipari tweets so much I honestly don’t know how he finds the time to feed himself. Whoever your favorite player is, chances are you can know almost everything about their day-to-day actions without the pesky inconvenience of stalking them.

The main argument against athletes tweeting is that it distracts them from doing their job. When Charlie Villanueva tweeted at halftime last year, the world almost ended. How could a player allow himself to lose focus so egregiously during a game? In reality, Villanueva tweeted that he needed to play better, then he proceeded to go out and play better. That tweet took a maximum of 30 seconds to write, and all it did was motivate Villanueva even more to back up his words.

Talk about the sanctity of the game all you want, but the world of sports is a business. Teams make money through fans. What better way to please your fan base than to make the players more accessible than ever? Instead of these million-dollar athletic freaks of nature that live in a completely different world than us, they become people — people who ask about movie recommendations and complain about standing in line at the bank. They become more like us.

Can tweeting change the game?

Teams should even take Twitter and online media a step further. Give the players two minutes at halftime for Twitter. Let them fill the fans in on how they’re feeling. Have them read messages from fans. Ever scream at the television, telling your center to turn over his left shoulder? He can’t hear you. But if you tweet it to him, there would be a small chance that he could actually get that information from you. The gap that separates fan and player has decreased dramatically.